From: Dan Middleton <dan.middleton@linux.intel.com>
To: linux-coco@lists.linux.dev
Subject: RFC: CCC Linux Kernel SIG
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2023 19:24:56 -0600 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <4dcca77e-e6d0-4cd1-9813-6a7ad24ba0e8@linux.intel.com> (raw)
Hi from the CCC!
Many of our companies also collaborate in the Confidential Computing
Consortium.
There we are proposing a SIG and invite your feedback and involvement:
https://github.com/confidential-computing/governance/pull/196
The entirety of the proposal is also copied below.
Thanks,
Dan Middleton
CCC TAC Chair
# Proposal: CCC Linux Kernel SIG
This proposal seeks to accelerate Confidential Computing feature
velocity in the Linux kernel.
By creating a Linux Kernel SIG in the CCC we can foster community dialog
to develop vendor neutral
architectural approaches to new features and thereby reduce complexity
in associated kernel patches.
# Background:
One of the technical limitations to the adoption rate for Confidential
Computing is the speed at
which we as a community can add features to the Linux kernel. Each
vendor has similar needs of the
kernel but has historically presented significantly different ABIs. To
contain complexity and manage
maintainability, the Linux kernel community tries to prevent
proliferation of unnecessarily vendor
specific ABIs. Often the opportunity for commonality is unclear until
multiple vendors have proposed
separate interfaces [0].
The CCC as the home of open collaboration for Confidential Computing
hardware vendors, software
vendors, and end users facilitates a unique environment for exchanging
views on features and
requirements. Up to this point in time though most CCC collaboration has
been on user space software
and use cases. The Linux kernel community has not been a regular part of
discussions and the CCC has
not been a regular participant on the Linux Kernel Mail List (LKML)[1].
Bringing these communities
together in a structured forum has the promise of accelerating their
joint work towards broad
availability of Confidential Computing in Linux environments.
# Scope:
1. Facilitate dialog between Linux kernel and Confidential Computing
subject matter experts:
* to facilitate direction for topics that need formal collaboration,
* to have an additional venue to facilitate direction for topics
that are stalled on LKML,
which would benefit from higher bandwidth communication,
* to have a common place to record decisions and formalize the
output for others to reference,
* and to introduce new technical topics emerging in either domain,
e.g., attestation mechanisms
approaching standardization.
2. Create recommendations for other organizations and communities such
as LKML, IETF, etc.
on topics at the intersection of the Linux kernel and Confidential
Computing.
# Governance:
The CCC adheres to a culture of Minimum Viable Governance [2].
We prefer not to create rules that inhibit the progress of substantive work.
All are welcome at all CCC community forums. This SIG is targeted to all
Linux kernel maintainers
and Confidential Computing vendors, project contributors, and end users
with a dependence on the
Linux kernel. Meetings will follow standard CCC practices of inclusivity
and openness adhering to
the community code of conduct [3] and the Linux Foundation’s Antitrust
policy [4].
## Decision Making:
This SIG will use consensus decision making [5] wherein not all
participants must be in full
agreement but that there should not be a strong consensus against a
proposal [6].
In most cases we expect that once the SIG reaches consensus on a kernel
topic, contributors will
propose aligned patches to LKML without any explicit communication from
the SIG or the CCC.
If a formal CCC recommendation to another organization, e.g., IETF, TCG,
eBPF Foundation, etc. is
required, the SIG will rely on the CCC Technical Advisory Council (TAC)
to ratify proposals from the
SIG.
The pipeline of activity is expected (but not required) to look like this:
1. Identify feature need on mailing list or informal forum.
2. Exchange community proposals in the SIG.
3. Achieve informal consensus in the SIG.
a. Author patches and take them to the appropriate community, e.g.,
LKML.
or
b. Raise an agenda item for the CCC TAC to formally ratify a
proposal and publish to the
appropriate organization.
## Initial Logistics:
The community will set its own meeting cadence starting from an initial
cadence of meeting twice per
month. The CCC will provide a Zoom channel. At the end of each meeting a
new chair may volunteer to
organize the agenda for the next meeting. The chair role confers no
other responsibility or
authority beyond collecting agenda requests from the community and
enforcing minutes and good order.
In addition to video meetings, the community will use an existing
Discord channel for ongoing
communication. No mail list is required at this time.
# References:
[0]
https://lore.kernel.org/all/64876bf6c30e2_1433ac29415@dwillia2-xfh.jf.intel.com.notmuch/
[1] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-coco/
[2] Sarah Novotny, Stephen Walli, “Minimum Viable Governance”, Linux
Foundation Open Source Summit Europe 2020,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2-_MjzP-Rs
[3]
https://github.com/confidential-computing/governance/blob/main/code-of-conduct.md
[4] https://www.linuxfoundation.org/legal/antitrust-policy
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus_decision-making
[6] See Rust’s Final Comment Period (FCP) https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs
next reply other threads:[~2023-11-08 1:24 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2023-11-08 1:24 Dan Middleton [this message]
2023-11-09 17:22 ` RFC: CCC Linux Kernel SIG Carlos Bilbao
2023-11-09 21:05 ` Dan Middleton
2023-11-09 21:17 ` Dionna Amalie Glaze
2023-11-09 21:22 ` James Bottomley
2023-11-09 18:38 ` James Bottomley
2023-11-09 22:27 ` Dan Middleton
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